Halloween
A Bouquet of Bad Metaphors #1
Unauthorized immigrants are not like parents who steal candy from children.
The Short Stuff: Aldo Buttazonni says that unauthorized immigrants are like parents who steal Halloween candy, but this metaphor doesn’t make any sense when you think about it. It turns out to be simple prejudiced smearing with no ethical substance.
Happy Halloween season, my fellow dark spirits! It’s that blustery time of year when we suddenly become interested in gourds and make other preparations for that most bizarre and cathartic of our holidays. And what could be more cathartic than examining a Halloween-themed take on illegal immigration?
Aldo’s video focuses on some porch-camera footage, from someone who left a bowl of treats with a sign on their front porch for trick-or-treaters. In the video, we see some parents greedily taking all of the candy from the bowl, leaving nothing for future trick-or-treaters. Assuming there’s not some kind of misunderstanding going on, I’m sure most people would be disgusted by these actions. These people might find it hard to make a connection to illegal immigration, but don’t worry, Mr. Buttazonni makes the connection!
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**Aldo:** I do think it's a very good metaphor for what's happening at our southern border. You have this group of people that put out this bowl of candy... a high-trust society... and immediately you have these people that are capitalizing and taking advantage of what's going on here... People made the analogy that the bowl is our social services. |
> Aldo: I do think it’s a very good metaphor for what’s happening at our southern border. You have this group of people that put out this bowl of candy… a high-trust society… and immediately you > have these people that are capitalizing and taking advantage of what’s going on here… People made the analogy that the bowl is our social services.
Okay, so in Aldo’s analogy, the citizens of the U.S. are the homeowners, putting out the bowl of candy (social services), and the thieving parents are the unauthorized immigrants, taking all the candy for themselves, and leaving none for the rightful recipients: the trick-or-treating children. And in this analogy, who are the trick-or-treating children who should be getting the candy? Mr. Buttazoni explains…
Aldo: We have a society that we want to be high-trust in, but it’s hard to do that when you have millions of illegal immigrants coming in here every year and taking advantage of the services that should be reserved for Americans.
Got it. So the rough analogy looks something like this:
| The Target | The Source |
|---|---|
| Homeowners | U.S. Taxpayers |
| Bowl | Social Services |
| Thieves | Unauthorized Immigrants |
| Children | U.S. Citizens |
A clean metaphor that paints unauthorized immigrants with the same disgust we would treat these parents who steal candy from children.
But what happens if you think about this for a bit?
Dissolving the Analogy (a How-To)
Restrictionist and nativist talking points have always relied on some popular, but questionable metaphors, from “A nation is like a house” to “Our lifeboat is about to capsize”, and even “get in line!”
There are two important steps I like to take when dissolving an analogy.
1. Point out the relevant distinction (or distinctions) that make the analogy a bad fit.
2. Prove the relevance of the distinctions by saying that if they were resolved, you would agree with the analogy.
Dissolving the Analogy: The Distinctions
1. Adults are not the intended recipients of the candy, but taxpayers are the intended recipients of social services.
This includes unauthorized immigrants.
Aldo Buttazonni may object to state and local governments including unauthorized immigrants as intended recipients, but that doesn’t mean it never happens. To fit the analogy, this would be like a homeowner putting candy out, but explicitly allowing all children in the neighborhood to take a piece (not just the children who, say, paid for the candy in taxes.)
2. The parents in the video are taking many times more than is allowed to each child,
but immigrants don’t ‘take’ many times the amount of social services that citizens do.
In fact, they use social services at lower rates than U.S. citizens.
3. The parents in the video are leaving nothing behind for future trick-or-treaters.
…but unauthorized immigrants aren’t leaving social services ‘empty’ for citizens. Despite what restrictionists say, for the vast majority of social services, providing the service to unauthorized immigrants does not mean citizens go without.
Dissolving the Analogy: The Proofs
The Better Analogy
So let’s make this analogy fit a little better. Imagine a video where child trick-or-treaters (the intended recipients of the candy) take a little less candy from the bowl than others (just like unauthorized immigrants use less in social services than citizens do). They don’t prevent any other trick-or-treaters from getting their candy (just like offering services to these immigrants doesn’t deprive citizens). When you adjust the analogy to fit reality, the moral objection goes away.
That’s what Aldo Buttazonni is objecting to.